Notes and Editorial Reviews

During her career, Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler appeared with the major orchestras in the United States and Europe under conductors such as Nikisch, Strauss, Mahler, Stokowski, Thomas, Damrosch and Seidl. Born in Austria, she was taken to the United States in 1867 when her parents moved to Wisconsin, eventually settling in Chicago in 1870. At the age of 15 she travelled to Vienna and remained there for five years studying with Leschetizky. By 1896 American writers were dubbing her "America's greatest virtuoso." Dissatisfied with the quality of disc recordings, she entrusted her legacy to the technology of the reproducing piano. In a letter to the inventors of the Welte Mignon reproducing piano, she wrote, "To the genius of its inventors theRead more piano virtuoso is deeply indebted, for now, a bit of immortality is vouchsafed even to him. Coming generations will be grateful to Messrs. Welte and Bockisch for preserving to them in an authentic manner the best tradition of pianistic interpretation." This two-disc set presents the best of her recordings for the Welte Mignon in transfers by Kenneth K. Caswell. Most of these recordings are appearing on disc for the first time. In his book The Great Pianists, Harold Schonberg wrote: "If Carreno was the Walkurie of the piano, Bloomfield Zeisler was the Sarah Bernhardt of the piano - or so she was called...For many years she was considered the greatest American pianist: a powerful technician with a staggering repertoire (in San Francisco she gave eight recitals in 18 days without repeating a number)."
717281200066 Preiser 20006 VERDI Aida "Rome Opera, Tullio Serafin, conductor Read less

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